


Unconditional

by Lynds



Series: Unconditional [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avenger Loki, Gen, Loki Does What He Wants, Loki Needs a Hug, Loki wasn't the bad guy in The Avengers, Protective Thor, Team as Family, Teambuilding, Thor Is Not Stupid, Thor Is a Good Bro, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-19
Updated: 2016-10-25
Packaged: 2018-08-23 09:54:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8323411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lynds/pseuds/Lynds
Summary: Loki has been missing for three years, and Thor has spent the entire time thinking on what he's learned from Jane. Has he really been so blind to how people have treated Loki? So when his father tells him to harden his heart to his brother, and bring him home for punishment after retrieving the Tesseract, Thor decides to disobey his father again. And this time, it might be for a good reason.





	1. Chapter 1

Thor walked beside his father up the remains of the Rainbow Bridge towards Heimdall, staring as ever into the depths of space. 

“What news, Watchman?” Odin’s voice was solemn, holding none of the anxious energy Thor felt twitching in his veins.

“Loki has shown himself to the mortals in Midgard. He talks of plans to rule above them, but their heroes stand against him. They have him bound, but I fear his trickery, Allfather.”

Thor glanced sharply to Heimdall before schooling his features. Since his brother fell, since the grief had retreated from the blinding scales over his eyes to a dull ache behind them, he had been noticing…things. How when people spoke about Loki, there was often a slight curling of the lips. When Sif and the Warriors Three reminisced about past adventures, they would joke about Loki’s tricks, but never remember how said tricks often saved their lives. And with an ache, he realised that this is how he had always thought of his brother, until he watched him fall. Let himself fall.

“Thor.” His father turned to him, and Thor stood tall and focused. “Loki brings war to Midgard in Asgard’s name. He means to use the Tesseract to open a portal, bring his army of Chitauri to conquer the mortals, and then…” his father sighed, “the gateway to the Nine will lie open. Who knows what foes may follow.” He rested a heavy hand on Thor’s shoulder and gazed into his eyes. “Harden your heart against him, Thor. He is no longer the brother you thought he was. Find the Tesseract, and bring Loki back to Asgard. He must answer for his crimes against Jotunheim and Midgard.”

Thor’s eyes widened, but he nodded. His thoughts were swirling as his father gathered the dark energy that would drain him for days. If Loki and his army captured Midgard, Asgard would find itself vulnerable with the Allfather not at full strength, and Thor felt the fate of his beloved home pressing down on his shoulders. But to harden his heart against his little brother? The little brother he couldn’t save, who had saved him so many times in the past. The beloved little brother who had tagged along behind him for centuries, working so hard to please all of them. He had spent nearly a millennium not showing how much he loved him, and eventually Loki had broken. 

“Bring him home, Thor,” his father said as he lowered Gungnir to blast him to Midgard. But was home the best place for him?

\---

Thor hit the ground on his knees, gasping and retching from the leftover dark energy coursing through his veins. He forced himself up, wiping his sweaty face, and took to the air with Mjolnir. Father and Heimdall would have sent him as close to Loki as they could, and he knew he was looking for one of their flying machines, but he couldn’t hear anything from the ground. He paused in midair, listening carefully until he heard the whine of jet engines, and raced towards it, thunder rumbling as his face set in determination. He landed on the roof of the plane, feeling it judder under his feet, then wrenched the ramp open. He took the scene in with one glance; two men stood, one looming over Loki, who was handcuffed and seated. His temper flared - how dare they disrespect a god of Asgard? Without a word, he wrapped his arm around his little brother and leaped.

They hit the ground on the mountainside, kicking up dust and shards of rock, Loki’s body tense in his arms.

“Loki. Brother.” Thor’s voice cracked and he wrapped his arms around him. He had thought he’d never get the chance to do this again, and he wanted to put the last three years worth of hugs into that one embrace, but forced himself to cradle the thin body gently in case he was injured. He’d promised himself he was going to be more thoughtful, and that was starting right now.

“What—“

“I have missed you, brother. I thought you dead.”

“Did you mourn.”

“Oh, Norns, yes. I am so glad to see you alive.” He drew close to Loki again and held the side of his neck, pressed their foreheads together. “Our father —”

“Your father. He did tell you my true parentage, did he not?” Loki pulled back from Thor and walked a few steps away. Thor sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. 

“Yes, my father. He wants me to bring you back to Asgard.”

“Oh, excellent. So I can return to the shadows, to living in the shade of your greatness.”

“Brother—“

“You are NOT my brother!”

“We were raised together, we played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of that?”

“I remember you tossing me into an abyss. I was and should be king!”

“What?”  

“I was the king by law, Thor, I did not steal it from you! Mother…your mother gave me Gungnir as we sat by Odin’s side.”

“Aye, I know that, brother, but what do you mean about the abyss? I —”

“The void, Thor! You threw me into the void when we fought.”

Thor’s blue eyes widened to impossible proportions. “Loki, you…you let go.” Thor’s voice broke at the last word, and tears streamed down his face again. “Brother, please tell me you don’t think…I tried…oh, Norns, Loki.” He stepped forward and grabbed Loki by the shoulders, squeezing him, reminding himself he was here, this wasn’t a dream. “You’re right,” he sobbed. “It was all my fault. I broke the Bifrost, the force sent you over the edge. I should have pulled Gungnir up as soon as I felt Father catch my heel. I could have, I know, I was strong enough. But I froze while you were talking to Father and…and it all happened so fast! Brother, please forgive me. I could have caught you, I —“

The air was knocked out of Thor’s lungs as he was ripped away from Loki and landed with his back against a tree. A metal man stood in front of him, and Mjolnir sang to be released, but Thor couldn’t respond. The fact that Loki thought he had pushed him off the Rainbow Bridge, that he had spent all this time believing his brother didn’t want him…it tore all the battle out of the Thunder God and made him want to curl up and sob on the ground like a child of just a few decades.

“Don’t take my stuff,” quipped the man of iron, the faceplate of his armour rolling back to reveal a mortal with a neat black beard. Thor hauled himself to his feet, feeling older than Odin.

“You have no idea what you’re dealing with,” he began.

“Shakespeare in the park? Doth mother know you wealth her drapes?”

“I do not have time for your mockery. I must get back to my brother.”

“He gives us the cube and he’s all yours. Until then, stay out of my way…tourist.”

Thor shook his head and frowned. He could still see Loki, standing on the mountainside where he’d left him. “Why has he not escaped?”

“Huh? What’s that, Point Break?”

“My brother is a powerful sorcerer, but even without his magic, the simple mortal bonds you have placed on him are as nothing. Why has he not ported himself away? I do not understand why he did not do that earlier, instead of allowing his enemies to capture him.” Thor started to swing Mjolnir, ready to fly back to Loki. There was something not right…many things, in fact. But as he gathered the storm’s energy, the Man of Iron must have misunderstood his intentions. He yelped as he saw the gathering storm, and fired his repulsors at the god. Thor was thrown backwards once again, trees smashing under his weight and stars bursting behind his eyelids. He growled at the indignity, the old fire kindling in his bones and burning away thoughts of Loki and trickery and layers of meaning, and he called Mjolnir to his hand again, hurling it at the metal man and knocking him clear into a tree.

“Okay,” groaned the man. Thor swung Mjolnir, summoning the lightning, but before he could fire, a blast of energy from the mortal slammed into him, and a second shot sent him flying into yet another tree. Thor knelt. Enough of this! He called the storm and fired at the Man of Iron.

It didn’t work. Instead of destroying the human and ending the battle, the suit seemed to gather the energy to use for itself, and Thor found himself thrown into the side of the mountain, tumbling with the Man of Iron and tearing the forest apart, their fight now close range and dirty. Just as Thor thought he was gaining the upper hand, a round shield emblazoned with a star ricocheted off both him and the Man of Iron. The second mortal, wearing a tight suit of red, white and blue instead of armour, stood on a fallen tree.

“Hey! That’s enough. Now, I don’t know what you plan on doing here —“

“I’ve come for my brother.”

“I’m afraid I can’t let you take him. Loki’s got answer for the crimes he’s committed here, and if you get in the way, we’ll just have to take you in too.”

Thor raised his eyebrow. “That’s really not going to happen.” He started to swing Mjolnir again, gathering his power.

“Well, this is all fascinating, but if you don’t mind, I’d rather be locked up by a group of pathetic mortals than have to deal with your mewling.”

Thor turned, eyes wide. “Loki!”

“Shall we go, then?” Loki looked from human to human, ignoring Thor. The two men looked at each other, eyebrows raised.

“Uh, call me contrary, Cap, but when bad guys start asking to be taken into custody with creepy smiles on their faces, I just get this overwhelming urge to not do what they ask.” 

The wind picked up and Thor turned to see the mortal jet landing in the clearing made by his battle with the Man of Iron. A red haired woman walked down the ramp as the whine of the engines subsided, and Thor turned to Loki, one hand outstretched. “Brother, cease this madness and come with me.”

“Back to Asgard? What do you think waits for me there, Thor?”

“I know what waits for you on Asgard…that is why I will not take you there. I have a plan —“

“That sounds terrifying,” Loki snorted.

“Uh, guys, you’re not going anywhere.” 

Thor ignored the mortal. “I will not let anything else happen to you. You know we are unbeatable together, whoever is behind this…we can beat him together.”

Loki whipped himself away as Thor stepped forward. “Do not mistake me for a puppet on a string. You know we were both raised to be kings, well, now I am claiming my throne. Or do you plan to take this one from me as well?”

“You do know there’s no throne of Earth, right? Right? Cap, ever get the feeling you’re being ignored?”

“You said you just wanted to be my equal, Loki, and that you never wanted a throne. Then take your place at my side. I want no throne either if it means we stand opposed. You and I need never return to Asgard, no more princes or kings. Let’s just be brothers again, if not by blood, then by our hearts. Please, Loki, please come with me. I have missed you.” As Thor spoke he walked forward until he was holding his brother’s arms. Loki’s fierce mask crumbled, his eyes widening. For a precious moment Thor thought he had him, had his baby brother back, but Loki turned away with a sharp laugh and walked towards the mortals.

“Doubt thou the stars are fire, Thor?”

Thor frowned, then turned to look at his brother’s back as he walked towards the jet. The metal man had retracted his helmet to reveal a dark haired, bearded face who laughed. “This really is Shakespeare in the park.”

“Brother, I do not understand. We know that the stars are nuclear fusion furnaces, not fire. Is the sun of this system under threat? Speak plainly!”

“You always were an illiterate, Thor.”

“Why is he quoting Hamlet?” The woman turned to Thor, eyebrow raised.

“I do not know this Hamlet of which you speak.”

“How’s the rest of the quote go, Tash?”

“‘Doubt thou the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love.’”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

Thor stopped following the mortals onto their jet. “Please, lady, repeat the quote for me.”

The red haired woman turned, and the others stopped to look at him as she spoke the words again.

“Mean anything to you, Point Break?”

“I…I know not. My brother said something like that before my failed coronation. Almost exactly that last line. I accused him of being incapable of sincerity, and he…he said ‘never doubt I love you’.” Thor’s smile was crooked with desperate hope. “Could he be reminding me of his words?”

The mortals looked at each other. “I guess that’s the only thing that really makes sense,” said the woman slowly.

The metal man snorted. “Yeah, but Hamlet went crazy and killed half the rest of the cast.”

“He never stopped loving Ophelia though.”

“Are we really going to stand here discussing English Literature or can we get Kenneth Branagh here to Fury?”

“You started it,” she shrugged, and walked to the cockpit to start the engines. The men strapped themselves in, and Thor sat opposite Loki, watching him, desperate for some sign that he was right to hope. Loki didn’t meet his eyes, staring off into space, his muscles clenching and twitching as if he was having some painful conversation. The longer he stayed in this state, the more worried Thor became. He was about to reach across the space and shake his brother when he suddenly jerked violently, face contorted in pain. 

“Loki! What ails you?”

Loki’s eyes focussed again, and he glared at Thor. “Sentiment,” he snorted, and stared off into space again. Thor leaned back, trying to connect all the fragments of information he was slowly collecting. He remained seated while guards led his brother into the helicarrier, until the man who had introduced himself as Steve Rogers during the flight tapped his shoulder. 

“Hey, everything OK?”

“I do not know, but I am becoming convinced that my brother is in the midst of one of his complicated schemes, and may be out of his depth again.”

“Again? He’s done things like this before?”

“Not exactly like this, no. My brother has told me many times he has no interest in ruling. But I recognise the flair. When Loki makes big, dramatic gestures you can be sure he is tricking at least one dangerous person. The louder he speaks, the less one can believe him.”

“And you think he’s in trouble?”

“My brother once got his lips sewn shut when he tricked a group of Dwarven craftsmen into giving Asgard three of their most precious artefacts.”

“Ah.”

“Indeed. So you can see why I would be worried. He has never shouted so loud, called so much attention to himself. This must be a truly dangerous game he is playing.”

\---

They joined the Man of Iron, introduced as Tony Stark, and another mortal in a meeting room. A screen showed Loki trading barbs with a one-eyed man.

“That guy’s brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him,” said an unassuming mortal with brown, curly hair. Thor’s hackles raised at once.

“Have care of how you speak. Loki is my brother.”

The Lady Natasha raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow. “He killed eighty people in two days.”

Thor’s shoulders drooped. “Do you imagine that in a thousand years of battle, I have not done worse? In fact, until very recently, I was the more violent by far, and sought out glory in war. Loki has ever been the politician, the tactician, the one who solved our problems with trickery and deception, for which he has never been popular. Our culture honours bravery in a headlong charge, while Loki has never shown either aptitude nor interest in such honours. This whole situation is entirely unlike him.”

“Guess we gotta figure out what changed then, hey?” Anthony Stark strutted in with the Son of Coul, a whirl of nervous energy, and patted Thor on the bicep. “So why’s little brother suddenly turned evil then, Arnie?”

Thor blinked, momentarily confused, before the gravity of the situation pulled him back down. “I fear there may be many factors. When last I saw him he…” but he couldn’t talk about Loki’s fall. He couldn’t tell these people about his failings as a brother. Thor felt his first taste of cowardice sour in his mouth and forced himself to continue. “He had just found out that we are not brothers by blood. Our…my father found him abandoned by the enemy at the end of the war and raised him as my brother. We did not learn the truth until three years ago, and I fear that the revelation was not taken well.”

“Went down like a shit sandwich, huh?” grunted Stark. “That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn’t notice, but we did.” He turned back to Thor. “See, even us puny mortals know you always tell a kid if they’re adopted, you don’t leave them to find out on their own. It’s not like it wasn’t blatantly obvious, I mean, look at the two of you. Not exactly alike, are you?”

“It was not my father’s finest hour, no,” agreed Thor, looking around shiftily as if he expected the Allfather to appear in a flare of Bifrost runes on the hellicarrier deck. He knew his father and Heimdall could see everything he did and hear every criticism, but the fact that they couldn’t do anything about it made him almost giddy with freedom. His father must already know he planned to take Loki and run as soon as he had the chance, he had already admitted as much to his brother. They would be able to get a head start with the Bifrost out of commission, and after that they would have to rely on Loki’s ability to shroud himself and anyone else he chose from Heimdall’s all seeing gaze.

But first he would have to convince Loki to run.

Anthony Stark was tapping at Director Fury’s keyboard, ignoring the dirty looks he was receiving from the Lady Maria, and brought up the live feed of Loki’s cell again. He stepped back, hands on hips. “Yeah, how you guys never figured that he was no relation of yours I’ll never know. So you think this is some emo angsty lashing out at the world? This a godly tantrum?”

“I know not.” Thor sighed, thinking of Jotunheim and the unknown effect of holding the Bifrost open on one point. Between them, the Odinson brothers had caused much grief to too many realms, and Thor winced when he thought how little he had cared until Jane had come into his life. And there was another train of thought he did not want to follow right now.

“Hey guys,” called the curly haired man, “what do you think he’s doing now?”

They turned to the monitor as one. Loki stood in the centre of the transparent cell, back ramrod straight as always. His eyes were shut, but this was no calming meditation. His fists clenched and unclenched at his side, and muscles twitched in his jaw, his neck, his forehead. The group gathered closer, squinting at the screen. Suddenly Loki’s whole body jerked back and his eyes opened. Thor was sure more than one person had jumped at the sudden movement.

“What was that?” asked the Captain.

“Yet more evidence that he is not the leader of these attacks.” Thor turned to Coulson. “Would you lead me to Loki? I would have words with my brother.”

Coulson nodded to Natasha before beckoning to her and Thor to follow. Stark and the man who had called Loki a bag of cats started talking about thermonuclear physics and quantum mechanics. The Captain vacillated a moment before running to catch up with Thor’s group. 

“You really think he’s not in control?”

“I have fought alongside my brother for centuries, Captain Rogers. Although I have not been the most attentive sibling, this is certainly not his style. He has also said a number of things that make little sense in context, and I believe he is trying to send us coded messages.”

As Coulson and Natasha turned the final corner to Loki’s cell, Thor heard a sharp intake of breath and raced forward. Loki was standing in front of the open cell door, and the agents had dropped down behind stacks of boxes by the doorway, their guns out and pointing at him. Thor raced forward and planted himself in front of his brother.

“Thor, get out of the way,” called the Son of Coul in his calm, expressionless tone.

“Lower your weapons then,” he replied.

“Thor, what are you doing?”

Thor turned to face Loki, lip twitching up as he saw how much he’d surprised his unflappable brother. The mask was almost completely gone, his eyes wide, and it hurt to see how much he had otherwise changed in the last three years. “Protecting my brother, like I should have done long ago.” He reached out to clasp his shoulder, and the illusion flickered and disappeared. Thor groaned. “Lokiiiii.”

Loki was standing in his glass cage, still wide eyed and staring, but he shook himself and repaired the mask. “Well, are you ever not going to fall for that?”

“I suppose not, if I haven’t learned in the last five hundred years.”

“You are a fool.” Thor didn’t think Loki was just talking about that one trick.

“No more than I have ever been. Loki, how can we help you?”

Loki barked a laugh. “Why would you ever help me?”

Natasha approached, holstering her weapon. “If it helps get our agents back and stop the invasion?”

His lip curled in a sneer. “You would ally yourselves with a monster? Well, I suppose you already have, haven’t you? This cage, is his, is it not? What will you attempt first, Agent Romanoff? Will you split the skull of your best friend, or will you trap your pet monster once I have vacated my accommodations?” He grinned viciously.

“The Hulk? That’s your play?”

“Dr Banner’s not a monster,” protested the Captain, but Natasha was already turning to speak into a video communication device by the control panel.

“Doctor, you need to isolate yourself, Loki is planning to bring out the Other Guy.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes on screen. “Yeah, so’s Tony.”

“Hey!”

“So you guys didn’t think about how this was a bad idea before you brought me onto a floating city?”

Natasha ignored him and rang Director Fury up on another screen. “Director, sounds like Barton’s coming to stage a jail break. We need to get close enough for cognitive recalibration. That’ll do it, right, Liesmith?”

Loki glared at her and bared his teeth.

“What are you talking about, Romanoff?”

“Hit him really hard on the head. Stop just short of splitting his skull. That’ll break the brainwashing link.”

“How can you be sure he’s not fucking with us? God of Lies and all?”

“Loki?”

Thor and the agents whipped round at the Captain’s word. He was walking closer to the glass box, staring at the prisoner, who was vibrating, his entire body clenched. As Thor watched, horrified, blood started to drip steadily from his nose.

“Loki!”

His eyes snapped open, the same poisonous blue of Barton’s flashing through, pushing back to green as Loki concentrated. “You could not have been more subtle, could you, Lady Widow?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading, kudosing and commenting! I hope you enjoy the middle chapter - and please let me know if it's too sweary for the teen and up rating...

Natasha looked at the bleeding, twitching Loki. Thor thought she would have swallowed if she had been a regular mortal.

“Uh, yeah, Director, I don’t think it’s us he’s been fucking with.”

Loki turned to Coulson. “The drop. Now.”

Coulson immediately started pulling levers and opening the floor beneath Loki’s cell.

“No!” Thor yelled, rushing forward to pull the agent away from the threat to his brother’s life.

“Thor, let him!” Loki’s voice was starting to slur, his twitching more and more violent and his eyes more often blue than green. The pupils were dilating to different sizes. The Captain had his hand over his mouth, stepping back as the wind whipped up through the hole in the helicarrier floor.

“I cannot watch you fall again, brother.”

“If you do not, you may have to watch your friends fall. I cannot hold him back…now, Agent!”

Natasha pushed past the men and slammed her hand on the drop button just as Loki threw his head back, his entire body seizing, and screamed. It took Thor an instant of shock before he leaped out of the hole after his little brother. He should have done this the first time, chased the brother he had failed to the depths of the void. He pointed Mjolnir to the cage ahead of him, trying not to watch his brother’s body smash into the sides of the cube as it spun. He had to stop it before it hit the ground. But why was Loki not trying to escape already?

A bolt of red and gold struck Thor and tore him out of his trajectory. He roared and struggled against the iron grip. “Release me, mortal! I must save my brother!”

“Don’t you see, he needs to hit the ground hard?”

“My brother is not in his right mind, but he does not deserve to die like this! The cage must be interrupting his magic, he cannot leave the cell and he may not be able to heal himself!”

“Fuck! How did you two ever think you were related? You idiot! He’s just told Natasha you need a blow to the head to break the mind control, He’s a god, so he’ll need a bigger blow. Let him fall, damn you!”

Thor continued to struggle, mad with grief and fear, the sight of his little brother falling into the void mixing with the view of him falling now. Only when the cage struck the ground did he go limp in Tony Stark’s armoured grip. He couldn’t even think any more. He couldn't even approach the possibility that he had failed again.

“C’mon, big guy. Let’s see if this gamble worked.”

He allowed Stark to fly with him to the remains of the glass cell, though his breath nearly stopped completely when he saw Loki’s broken, bloody figure in the middle. He dropped Mjolnir and raced towards him, wanting to cradle him close but not wanting to cause any more damage.

“Brother, please…please…”

The armour retracted away from Stark’s body and he crouched down on Loki’s other side, gently probing his neck for a pulse, and lifting his eyelids.

“Jesus…uh, I don’t think…no! Shit! I just felt something. His pulse, it’s weak but just there.”

Thor gave in and sobbed, trying to smile beneath the tears.

“Uh, I don’t think we can move him though. You guys heal really fast, right? If he was human…uh, well, if he was human he’d be dead, but if he was an injured human I wouldn’t move him for fear of causing more damage. What do we do, Thor?”

“I know not. My brother’s magic should be at work, but we do not know the extent of his internal injuries, and he may already be weakened. He has been out of our sight for three years, and judging by recent evidence he has not been treated well.”

“Yeah, that whole seizure thing…”

He broke off as Loki woke up, making a skin crawling sound somewhere between a keen and a moan. Thor bent over him, wanting to touch and comfort him as his shallow breaths gasped pain and eyes, with spots of blood on the sclera, widened in panic.

“Hey there, Gandalf, you need to calm down, buddy.” Tony Stark also leaned over Loki, who flinched as the new face came into view. “Shhh, shhh, it’s OK. I’m not here to shoot you again, chill out. Your breathing’s too shallow, you need to draw it down a little deeper, I know it hurts, your ribs are probably pulp, and your lungs are probably full of holes…uh, yeah, that’s probably not helping. Is there anywhere that doesn’t hurt? Don’t answer that. Don’t move or anything.” He gently turned Loki’s hand, twitching as broken bones in his wrists crunched, and stroked the palm slowly in a circle. “Can you feel that? Can you focus on that for me? Try to focus just on that. If you can’t, Thor, you try the same thing on his cheek. Try keep it slow and calm, we want his breathing to slow down to match it.”

Thor complied gladly, stroking a rough thumb over Loki’s cheekbone and murmuring to him while Stark carried on chattering, calling Dr Banner. “I know you’re not that kind of doctor, Doc, but fuck, there aren’t any specialists on alien blunt force trauma on Earth that I know of, so you’re the closest. Get your ass on my plane and meet us at the tower. OK, ET, that’s great, you’re much calmer now. Can you move your fingers? Awesome. One squeeze for yes, two for no, OK? Great. Is your magic healing you at all?” Loki squeezed once. “OK, good to hear. Healing as fast as normal? Nah, didn’t think so. Can we move you? OK, OK, stop squeezing me, buddy.”

 

A quinjet touched down in the field a quarter of an hour later, by which time Loki had calmed and was trying to speak, against everyone’s advice. Thor continued to stroke his cheek while Stark stood up to greet the Captain, and together they lifted him onto a stretcher to carry into the jet. As they passed Natasha, his hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, a couple of fingers still pointing in the wrong directions. “Barton?” he rasped.

She twitched one side of her lips up. “We got him. He’ll meet us at Stark Tower. Thanks for the heads up.”

“The portal…” but his voice was lost under a coughing fit that ended with blood bubbling out of the corner of his mouth.

“Shit, turn him, Cap. Hey, Reindeer Games, remember how I told you to stop bloody talking? Yeah, that’s why. Give yourself a chance, man.”

He and Thor sat on either side of Loki throughout the flight, Tony chattering constantly but tutting every time Loki tried to move or talk. They landed on the platform of an angular building, taller than any in Asgard, with Stark’s name emblazoned on the side. Thor and Captain Rogers carried the stretcher in between them while Stark continued to hold Loki’s hand, even though he had fallen into a shallow sleep again. He woke once more when they laid him onto a hospital bed and Dr Banner walked in.

“Hey, Tony, I’ve got the sceptre, where do you want it?”

“Shit! Stay still, Lokes, you’re going to re-break everything —“

“The sceptre…take it away…take it…” he broke off in another coughing fit, snarling and trying to back away. Thor tried to hold him without hurting him, but didn’t think there was any part of his brother’s body that wasn’t broken.

“Uh, OK, taking it away now,” said Banner, backing out the door. Loki settled back down, and took the cup of water Stark held out for him. Thor smoothed the hair back from his face.

“So, the glowstick of destiny, huh? Don’t try to talk, let your lungs heal a bit more. Do we need to destroy it?”

He held Loki’s hand again, nodding as he squeezed twice and lay back on the bed.

“OK, how far away should we put it? Like, other side of the world? No? Send it back to the helicarrier?”

Loki narrowed his eyes in thought, then squeezed twice again.

“Basement?”

Loki squeezed once, his eyes starting to fall shut again, but he forced them open and spoke softly. “We need it, but it will affect your emotions. Amplify them, especially fear. Keep —“ he took another drink. “Keep it distant.”

Stark nodded, then turned his head as Banner re-entered. “Where did you put it?”

“Took it down to the basement, JARVIS introduced himself and passed the message on.”

“Thanks J.”

“My pleasure, sir.”

Both Thor and Loki startled, and Stark’s hands fluttered to Loki’s shoulders, encouraging him to relax again. “JARVIS is my AI, he’s like a highly advanced computer programme, you guys have those in Spacegard or wherever?”

Thor shook his head.

“Uh, like a virtual assistant? A servant? No offence J, you know you’re much more than that to me.”

“None taken, sir.”

Bruce stepped forward. “Hi, Loki, I’m Dr Banner. I, uh, I’m not exactly a medical doctor, but I have some experience with violent injuries. Do you mind if I take a look at you?”

Loki nodded, and Stark ran through a list of the injuries he thought Loki had sustained immediately following the fall. “And it looks like he’s healed quite a bit already. I think he’d broken his spine initially, but as you can see he’s moving around more freely. JARVIS, please can you do a full body scan and give us a readout of the remaining injuries?”

“Scanning now, sir.”

“Loki, is your magic able to heal all of your injuires?”

Loki, almost asleep now, twitched his fingers on Stark’s hand. Banner nodded. 

“I guess you’re running a bit low right now, though, so is it prioritising the most severe ones?”

Another single twitch of his fingers.

“Anything we can do to help? What do you need?”

A single twitch and Loki’s eyes fluttered open. “Rest,” he croaked. “And sustenance, when I wake, if it is not too much trouble?”

“I can go one better than that,” said Stark, standing. “I can put a drip in you, get your nutrient levels up while you sleep. Have you got the same physiology as Thor?” 

“In this form, yes,” he replied, and Thor’s eyes widened. Loki must have been truly exhausted to reply honestly and without anger to a question about his true nature.

“Thor, can we please take blood from you to determine the optimal chemical composition for Loki’s drip?”

Thor nodded and left his brother’s side, reluctantly, to provide a vial of blood. The needle wasn’t strong enough to break his skin, so he ended up using his own knife to cut his thumb and hold the wound open so that the blood dripped into a glass vial. As soon as he moved the knife, the cut stitched itself together. Banner raised his eyebrows. “Useful.”

“Indeed. Were my brother at his full strength, he would be able to heal these injuries within a few hours. It pains me to see how poorly the last three years have treated him for him to remain so badly wounded for so long.”

Banner patted him on the arm and turned to the lab area. He turned back after a moment. “Uh, I just wanted you to know I’ll destroy this sample as soon as I’ve got the readings I need. I wouldn’t want my blood to fall into the wrong people’s hands either.”

“You have my thanks, Dr Banner.”

“Bruce, please.”

 

The whole group gathered in Stark’s living area for a Midgardian banquet called pizza. Bruce had developed a nutrient combination quickly, finding a percentage composition based on whatever Loki was lacking the most. The man’s lips had thinned on reading the data from Loki, and he muttered something about long term malnutrition and severe hypoglycaemia. Thor had cut a small nick in Loki’s vein so that Banner could insert the cannula, and his magic was too busy with more severe wounds to heal the small one in his arm. They had left him sleeping, bruises on his face already starting to recede.

“Hey, Stark, I think we got off on the wrong foot,” said the Captain as Stark handed steaming boxes around. “I knew your father back in the war, I guess it’s just weird…sorry.”

Stark patted the super soldier on the arm and half smiled. “No hard feelings, Cap. Call me Tony, Stark’s my dad’s name.”

“Yeah, I guess,” grinned Rogers, rubbing the back of his head. I didn’t mean any disrespect, I don’t know what came over me.”

Stark - Tony - tipped his head to one side. “You know, we were in the room with that sceptre thingy of Loki’s at the time. He said it affects your emotions.”

“You’re just being nice, Tony,” Rogers laughed. “Thanks.”

The group gathered on a set of sofas by the panoramic windows, talking quietly and sharing the greasy flatbreads. Thor was delighted with the range of flavours, but he was glad Loki wasn’t there to mock his disgusting table manners. A warm glow rushed through his chest when he realised that Loki was here - the only reason he wasn’t mocking him right now was because he was resting, and not because he was dead. The hole that had ached for the last three years, the cavern in his heart he and his friends had tiptoed around, avoiding mentions or reminders of Loki, was now filled with light.

“Thor, buddy, you all right?”

“Thank you, Doctor. Bruce. I am…it’s just good to have my brother back.”

Bruce patted him on the shoulder. “Think he’ll be happy to go back home with you?”

“I will not be taking him home, Bruce.”

“What? I thought —“

“My father wants me to bring him back to Asgard, but Loki faces imprisonment for his crimes before he fell into the void. I cannot do that to him.”

Bruce looked shocked. “But surely your dad will go easy on him? Especially when he finds out what he’s been through the last three years.”

Thor thought for a moment, then shook his head slowly. “My brother has never found much mercy on Asgard. It has taken three years of grieving to realise that my mother and I were the only ones who missed him. And looking back, his punishments have always been…excessive. I fear for what he would endure if I obeyed my father.”

Bruce looked strangely green, and spent a moment breathing consciously. Thor raised his eyebrow. “I am sorry to have upset you, Doctor Banner.”

“It’s fine, Thor,” he gave a weak smile. “I just…for what it’s worth I think you’re doing the right thing.”

“You’re welcome to stay here.” Thor and Bruce looked over to Tony when he spoke. “I mean, all of you, actually.” He was still staring at his piece of pizza, and Thor was touched to see how awkward the otherwise confident man was. 

“What do you mean, Tony?” asked Bruce.

“Look, I know I don’t play well with others, thanks Natasha, but I have all this space, and I was thinking about us being a team, and the Avengers Initiative old Eye Patch’s always on about…it just makes sense to be nearby. I mean we can do shitty team building games and have pizza, and Bruce - you haven’t even seen my real labs, just the medical bay, you’ll have a conniption, man. We’ve got a gym for you muscle bound super soldiers and gods, there’s a sub basement with a freaky mind controlling sceptre in it right now but it’s big enough that we could put an archery range in for Angry Birds over there. I dunno, stupid idea, next?”

“That’s really…”

“Ridiculously generous, Tony.”

Thor looked at the dark haired man, almost shrunk in on himself with embarrassment. “I would take you up on your kind offer, Tony Stark,” he said, and knew he’d made the right call when Tony looked up with a face splitting grin. “My brother and I will need all the help we can get, and we know not how long this campaign will last.”

“That’s a point,” Natasha agreed. “I mean, now the leader’s defected to our side, who knows how long it’ll take them to re-group. We might as well make this our base of operations.”

“If you’re sure, Tony? It’s a really big deal, I mean, you don’t know us at all. We could all have awful habits.” Steve looked at Tony with blue eyes leaking sincerity, and Tony laughed.

“Seriously? Whatever habits you’ve got I bet I trump them. Yeah, Spangles, I’m sure.”

“We need to prepare for the invasion,” said Natasha, sticking her tongue out to catch a string of cheese from a slice of Hawaiian.

“You’re right there,” called a voice from the door, and Coulson entered, handing out files. “Here’s all the information we have, updated to include the latest results from Stark and Banner’s Tesseract locator, not that we know how accurate that information is. Looked like it was on the move.” He looked at the pizza boxes and raised an eyebrow at Stark. “Pizza, Stark? Really?”

“Hey, if we’re going into battle we’re going to need to do some carb loading. Pizza’s got all the major food group - look, here, a vitamin.”

Coulson’s lip twitched, but he sat down and took a piece of Bruce’s vegetarian. “What have we got so far?” he asked, flicking his wrist so that the cheese swung around the slice out of the way.

“Selvig’s still brainwashed, and he was in charge of the portal design,” replied Barton.

“Think he’ll stick to the original plan?”

“Depends on whether the Chitauri send another leader now they’ve lost contact with Loki,” suggested Rogers.

Barton shook his head. “I don’t think they can. I had no contact with the aliens when I was under control, I just…wanted to do everything Loki told me to.” Barton shuddered. “It’ll be a bit awkward looking the guy in the face again now we’re both ourselves.”

“So we’ve still got to figure out where they’re planning to put that portal. We’re just back to square one,” Coulson pointed out.

Banner gestured between himself and Stark. “We were discussing this while you guys were dropping Loki out of the sky. He said something about ‘a warm light for all mankind’, and then being reminded of ‘real power’. He was talking about the tesseract, so we thought maybe it had something to do with Tony’s Arc Reactor - it’s the only tech in existence that had something to do with the cube and produces green energy. And then being reminded of real power? That could be a clue that he was planning to put the portal up here.” 

“Cheeky bastard,” snorted Stark. “Of course, he could also be hinting at Fury’s phase 2 weapons.”

“What?” Rogers sat forwards, frowning.

Coulson looked as implacable as ever. “How could he have known about those?”

“You’re not even denying it? Awesome.”

Coulson shrugged. “Not much point denying it. We had a bunch of alien gods stage a grudge match in New Mexico a few years ago, it really hammered home how woefully unprepared we are for whatever else is out there.” He turned to Rogers, something like guilt seeping through the seams of his composure. “We have to use every resource we have to protect our planet, you understand that, don’t you, Steve?”

The Captain broke his gaze and rubbed his face with the heels of his hands. “I don’t know, Phil, it’s just…I guess I just associate Tesseract weapons with HYDRA.” He shook his head, eyes still hidden. “This world really has changed.”

“And stayed exactly the same,” murmured Natasha.

Rogers shook himself wearily and turned back to the group. “I guess it doesn’t matter now, does it? Just…I went into the ice thinking I’d taken those kinds of weapons off the table, and now…excuse me a moment.” He walked out, leaving a shamed silence.

 

Barton was the first to speak. “I don’t think Loki could have known about Fury’s weapons. I didn’t have that intel, so he didn’t get it from me.”

“Stark just wanted to drop us in it,” snorted Natasha.

Tony looked offended. “I did not! I’m much more creative when dropping people in it.”

“So back to assuming ‘real power’ refers to the invasion then?” Coulson suggested.

Thor joined the conversation at last. “If my brother has been trying to sabotage this invasion, placing the portal above your well-defended tower would be a good first step. It also appears arrogant enough to hide his intentions from the mind control, making it seem as if he is just dismissing your ability to defend this realm.”

“Can we not just wake Loki up and ask him?” asked Barton.

Stark shook his head. “Guy broke nearly every bone in his body multiple times a couple of hours ago, I think we can leave him to heal for a little while longer.”

Thor smiled gratefully at Stark. 

“We’ll need to set up an early warning system.” Everyone turned as the Captain returned, voice professional and all traces of emotion wiped away. “These guys could be approaching from the air up to the helipad, or at street level. Do we know if it’s proximity to the arc reactor they’re looking for, or if it’s the height?” Barton shrugged and shook his head. “Street’s more subtle but an air strike’s faster. What do you think, Barton?”

“We were going to fly in, land on the roof with one of the jets that Ward sourced. Don’t know where he got it from, we trusted each other to use all our resources to work towards the same end. Loki put everyone who worked for him under the mind control.”

“I thought you and Selvig were the only ones he got hold of,” said Coulson, taking the little earpiece Stark was handing him. He passed them on to the rest of the group down his side of the table.

Barton looked embarrassed. “Uh, yeah, I have a few contacts, I called a couple of people in, we ambushed them. They had a few contacts of their own. It all snowballed.” He frowned suddenly. “I think I can probably strike them off my list of contacts now, and put them on my list of people to avoid at all costs.”

“JARVIS, hack into all the CCTV cameras for the surrounding five blocks, and connect to the air traffic control towers. I want as early a warning as possible, better to stop this portal opening than to fight off an invasion.”

As he reached forward for another piece of pepperoni, an alarm sounded.

“Sir, we have hostile forces on the roof of the tower.”

“What the hell, JARVIS?”

“I’m sorry, sir, the jet they used for the approach had unparalleled cloaking capabilities.” The AI sounded as worried as a mechanical spirit could. “They appear to have hovered above the highest part of the roof and jumped out, instead of using the helipad. Dr Selvig is assembling the portal device with the help of two other scientists not on the facial recognition databases. There are twelve agents I can identify as known mercenaries and criminals, and three with possible links to HYDRA.”

“HYDRA? What the hell, Clint, what kind of contacts do you have?”

“I don’t know,” yelled Barton, “they’re not all my contacts!”

Captain Rogers raced to the plate glass windows, pulling his cowl down over his eyes and picking the shield off the floor. At a gesture from Stark the glass glided into recesses in the walls, and Steve led the group out onto the Man of Iron’s landing platform. “Thor, Iron Man, I need you guys in the air as fast as possible,” he yelled. Stark gave a sharp nod, activating a set of bracelets and shifting as plates of armour flew out of the building to surround him. “Thor, I’d appreciate a lift up there. Widow, Hawkeye and Coulson, I need you to get up to the roof and take out the soldiers. Try for cognitive recalibration as far as possible.”

“Honestly, Cap, they’re not exactly innocents,” yelled Barton, but he fired an arrow with a grappling hook and flung himself up the sloped glass towards the invaders. Natasha and Coulson had already taken the elevator. 

“Dr Banner —“

“Ah, no, Captain, I don’t think this is the best place for the Other Guy. I’ll go check on Loki. Call me if you need me. Either…me.”

Rogers nodded and braced himself as Thor swung Mjolnir and heaved the two of them into the air. Bullets began to strike the Captain’s shield as they neared the tower’s apex, and Thor dropped Rogers on a lower level roof, then flew around to call the lightning. The agents had arrived and were rapidly picking the soldiers off. As Thor aimed and gathered the cloud, a metallic whir spat out of the device. Parts started spinning, and with an explosive crack, a blue beam shot up into the air, narrowly missing him. 

 

Thor heard swearing through the earpiece, and looked up in horror as Chitauri seethed down through the narrow portal. The Man of Iron followed the beam upwards and destroyed a good number, but even his technology was overwhelmed by numbers. Thor squinted at the narrow gap, and wondered if the bottleneck portal had been Loki’s explicit instruction, or whether Erik had also retained some of his own will. He gathered the storm again and this time fired, directly into the portal, dodging a shower of molten, sparking Chitauri shrapnel. And yet still they came.

“Shit, they’re reaching street level,” yelled Stark on the comms. 

“Agents, what’s the situation on the roof?”

“We’ve got two more soldiers, Cap. I tried to shoot the device with an explosive arrow, but it looks like it’s got some sort of shield around it, the blast just went outwards and knocked the scientists back.”

“I’ve got Selvig, he’s clear of the mind control,” yelled Natasha. Two shots fired. “Roof’s clear.”

“OK, Widow, see what you can get from the Doctor. Hawkeye, I need you spotting us, and Coulson, meet us on the ground, we need to get the civilians clear. Dr Banner, can you hear me?”

“Yeah.”

“We could really use the Other Guy here.”

Banner sighed. “Sure, I’ll be right out.”

“Dr Banner, how fares my brother?”

“Yeah, wake him up, that guy fights like a kung fu master,” added Barton.

“Sorry guys, he’s still out of it. Still got a few broken bones and bruised organs, and I can’t seem to rouse him.”

There was a sudden roar, and Stark swore. Thor turned from a battle with a cohort of Chitauri, hurling the one in his fist into the last two and knocking them all out of the sky.

“Uh, Doctor Banner, now would be a really good time to get angry,” Rogers began, as an armoured leviathan flew down the portal towards them. Thor snarled and adjusted his grip on Mjolnir.

“That’s my secret, Captain.” Banner’s mild voice came over the comms, resigned. “I’m always angry.” 

Another roar burst the air, and an enormous green creature leaped off Stark’s tower, grabbing hold of the leviathan and tearing into its plating. Thor quirked a grin and raced to join the Doctor’s alter ego. This was even better than the first time he and Loki had taken on Nidhog. The whale-like creature was howling as the Hulk punched its scales, but for now was more angry than in pain. Its flippers tore into the glass of a skyscraper, and Thor glimpsed terrified mortals within, and more below desperately trying to shield themselves from the falling debris. The Captain and Son of Coul were working together on a bridge in a more open area. Coulson had liberated one of the Chitauri spears and with a pang Thor thought of himself and Loki as the two men worked back to back, Rogers fighting with brute strength and a blunt instrument, while the agent used his agility and skill. Soon, he told himself. Soon, Loki would be better, and if he would let him, Thor would follow him to the end of the Nine Realms and beyond. He turned with a fierce grin and rushed up the spine of the leviathan. The Hulk was stabbing the creature with a piece of its own plating, and Thor leaped off a ridge and hammered it into its brain stem, at last bringing the beast to rest in a crater of rubble on what remained of a street. He grinned at the Hulk, who punched him into a building.

For a moment he lay back, a surprised laugh escaping his lips with the last of the air in his lungs, and he coughed to refill them. The noises of the battle returned now he was no longer focused on a task to the exclusion of all else. He could hear the plasma weapons and Stark’s repulsors, the shrieks of the Chitauri answering the Hulk’s roar. Buildings creaked and glass fell. Most of the mortal civilians had long since stopped screaming, whimpering in fear as they cowered behind rubble instead.

“Stark, we need Loki’s sceptre. Selvig says there’s a fail safe,” Natasha was yelling in the comms.

“It’s in the sub-basement - JARVIS, give Natasha access.”

“Running out of arrows here, people.”

“Clint, there's a cache for you on the corner of Park and 48th.” Coulson’s voice sounded as measured as ever.

“On it, boss.”

Thor was dusting himself off and thinking he really must introduce Banner’s alter ego to Volstagg when five more leviathans swam through the portal. Thor swung Mjolnir and lifted off the ground to face the threat, but had not moved more than one street along before something collided violently with his back. A large Chitauri speeder hovered above him and one of the creatures dropped down to the street. Thor leaped up and raced towards the creature, ready to strike its head from its shoulders.

 

In hindsight he should have noticed the fact that this one was different. Unarmed, paler, and wearing a robe instead of chitinous plates. When it stepped forward and touched his head, almost gently, a spear of excruciating pain shot through his body, and his legs collapsed from under him. The creature was holding him up by his temples, sending wave after wave of burning, freezing, acid, ground glass, poison through his blood. He could hear someone screaming from far away, and it was only when he was thrown to the ground and felt his raw throat that he realised it had been him. 

The pain had stopped when he was thrown. Thor knew he should get back up, fight this evil being, but every part of him wanted to crawl away and hide like a beaten dog. He was the son of Odin, of the royal house of Asgard! This abject terror brought shame upon his family. He forced his eyes open, trembling hands pushing damp hair out of his eyes, and tried to focus, to find the threat. 

“Thor, stay down.”

Thor tried to call his brother’s name, warn him of the danger, especially when he was not yet completely healed, but his scream-torn throat failed him.

A chuckle like gravel underfoot rolled around the battleground, making his hair stand up on the back of his arms. 

“You have failed us, Godling. Do you remember my promise?”

“A promise you will find difficult to keep from the realm of your Master’s Mistress,” Loki sneered.

“And who will be sending me to my death? You? The cast offs from the Golden Realm?”

“Ooh, and would that not burn you? To be killed by your little plaything, to realise your indelible control was not nearly as complete as you believed? I can taste my revenge already.”

“Oh, but I have already started on my revenge. Look around you, Godling. Your forces are woefully outnumbered. And when we have destroyed your precious mortal heroes, we will take them to the same rock where we kept you. We will chain you in front of them and watch each one fall to the same tortures that you experienced. Death will be a mercy granted to each of them only when you have given Lord Thanos one more world, one more Infinity Gem. One gift for one death.” The creature snickered and circled around Loki to look at Thor, who could not hide his cringe. “And when we have finished with each of your delicate little mortals, we will start on your precious brother. You will watch the years of sweet pain you experienced with us gifted to your golden prince. We will not touch you. You will have none of the pain. It is all for him.” The being took one step closer to Loki, and Thor saw his fingers tremble. “And when he is but a shrivelled husk, incapable of being brought back from Mistress Death’s reach, we will find your mother.”

 

Both Loki and Thor leaped at the same time with a roar. Loki’s knives appeared in his hands, and his clones erupted into view around them, battling with any other Chitauri who came near. The brothers went to war with their enemy, Thor on the right wielding Mjolnir, Loki on the left firing spells and daggers. They whirled in perfect choreography, each knowing the other’s moves and complementing them, an unbreakable wall of fury. But this was a creature that had held the greatest mage in the Nine Realms in excruciating torture for three years, and he was more than a match for the young gods. Every time Thor’s hammer swept towards his head, he disappeared, every move Loki made with his knives he countered. Thor had thought that together he and Loki were unbeatable, but he had a new companion in this fight, one he had never dealt with before. He was afraid.

When Loki’s knee, still weak from incomplete healing, twisted and snapped after a sudden turn, Thor thought his blood had turned to ice. He reached down for his brother, who turned his pain-lined face up. His eyes met Thor’s, and looked behind him, and widened in horror. In that instant of time, Thor felt he could see through Loki’s eyes as if into a mirror, watch the evil creature delight in its victory, raise an arm with a modified sceptre similar to the one with which Loki had arrived. Thor felt his fear spread through his veins like lightning, leaving behind an aftertaste of resignation, as if this was an inevitable consequence of fighting the nightmare being. But in Loki’s eyes there was no such resignation. He saw the gathering of Loki’s magic around him, and his precious little brother disappeared from his grasp with a rush of displaced air. Thor heard the thump, and the huff behind him, and in the final fragment of the instant wished that he could stay with his back to the creature. If he didn’t turn around, he would not see his brother impaled on the creature’s sceptre, the weapon meant for him piercing through his brother’s body, and he could pretend that it had never happened, and would never happen.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short final chapter! I hope it's satisfying - thank you all so much for your support on my first ever fan fic!

Thor turned to face the nightmare. He had thought he was prepared, but the sight of Loki with a curved blade piercing through his body, spearing out through the black leather of his jacket, nearly forced him down to his knees. How many times, he wondered, will I have to watch my brother die? How many more times can I possibly get him back?

The creature was snarling, trying to pull the sceptre back out of Loki’s chest, but Loki held tight to the shaft even as bloody froth appeared on his lips. Thor watched his impossible brother refuse to submit to pain or fear or death, and his defiance dispelled some of the fear that had taken root in his own heart. The pale Chitauri raised its leg, planting it on Loki’s chest to push him away from the spear, and Loki bared his teeth in his most wicked grin. As Thor watched, the glamour he had known as his brother’s skin dropped, leaving the deep blue of glaciers, strung with pearl-white tribal scars. His now red eyes gleamed with malice as he grabbed the being’s leg. Ice crept up from his point of contact, and the creature started to squirm, first in anger, then in panic. Joint by joint it froze, frost patterns skittering up its skin in front of the more solid ice casing, until it reached the beast’s head.

“Thor,” Loki gasped, and Thor swung Mjolnir, shattering the creature into a million shards of ice and gore. Loki flinched and grunted as the impact pulled on the spear in his body, and Thor dropped to his knees to support him.

“Brother,” he breathed, wrapping his arms gently around his thin chest, the Jotun blue disappearing under his touch. “When are you going to stop nearly dying in front of me?”

“I suppose on the day I actually die in front of you, Thor,” he replied, blood dripping down his chin with each word.

“Do not joke about such things, brother, I cannot take much more of this.”

Loki laughed, then squeezed his eyes shut in pain. “You cannot?”

“What can I do, Loki?”

Loki shook his head and took a couple of deep breaths, gathering the magic around himself to teleport. Thor fell forward onto his hands as he disappeared, and looked around wildly. He had only moved a few feet, but had left the vicious bladed sceptre behind at Thor’s knees and was now lying curled around his wound. Blood was pouring out of him onto the street, and Thor crawled over to him, pressing his hands against the entry and exit wounds. Other sounds were starting to filter back into his awareness again, though distantly, as if he were trapped deep under water.

“I have the sceptre, I can shut the portal down,” Natasha yelled.

“Do it!” ordered the Captain.

“No, wait.”

“Stark, these things are still coming!”

“I got a nuke coming in, it’s gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it.”

“Stark, you know that’s a one-way trip?”

Thor turned his attention back to Loki as he gave an involuntary groan. “Brother, please tell me what I can do.”

“Nothing. There’s nothing. I just need time.”

Thor looked at the blood pooling around them, soaking into his cape and turning the scarlet deep brown, and did not point out that Loki was fast running out of time. Instead he took off the cape, wrapping is around his brother’s body, tying it tightly over the wound that ran through his whole body, hoping that by bringing the two jagged sides together he was helping the weakened magic. Loki hissed at the movement, and whimpered when Thor lifted him, hoping to carry him back to Stark’s tower and the medical facilities.

He quickly realised it was a bad idea. The Chitauri, noticing the death of their new leader (or their old leader?) were congregating on the pair, the streets and buildings black with the waves of insectoid bodies. Thor bent to place Loki on the ground, to leave his hands free for battle. He would stand over his brother’s body and swing Mjolnir until the bodies piled above them, until the weight of the dead forced him down to his knees, and then he would call the lightning again and again until every last stinking creature that had dared touch his brother was a smear of ash upon the ground. He swung his hammer, calling the storm, and started smashing the first heads, when suddenly, every one of the Chitauri collapsed, puppets with severed strings.

Thor looked around at the carpet of lifeless creatures, and for a moment considered being angry that his revenge had been taken from him. But then Loki trembled violently, and any thoughts of vengeance fled. He cradled Loki in his arms again, holding him close to his chest and dematerialising his own armour so that he was pressed against soft Midgardian clothes that Jane had given him instead, passing some of his body heat on. Loki’s jaw spasmed and he curled in on himself, cold from the shock and blood loss.

When the portal was shut off, the sudden silence was like a shout, and Thor looked up to Stark tower, only a few blocks away. The blue light had disappeared, and under his worry for Loki, Thor could feel a muted victory that they had won and repelled the invaders. The Man of Iron was falling out of the sky, and Thor gripped Mjolnir, mentally urging Stark to get his machine under control and fly before he too hit the ground. As the voices on the comms grew more panicked, Thor started to turn his head, unwilling to watch his new friend fall like his brother. But the Hulk leaped off a building and grabbed him out of the air, sliding down another skyscraper to place his body gently upon the road. Thor’s heart lifted, and he hurried towards them, as Hulk’s roar made the Man of Iron jerk in surprise and start talking. 

He couldn't help his face curling into a smile. His new shield brothers were alive and had fought with honour surpassing that expected of mortals. His real brother, the brother of his heart, was alive and in his arms, still shivering, but blinking up at him. The spasms were less often, and the blood that had been trickling from his lips had now slowed to nothing. He looked down at the pale god in his arms, who quirked his own lips in a tired smile, and felt the joy split his face. He hadn’t smiled like this since before his aborted coronation. And if he had smiled this much before that, it had been but a pale shade of the joy that burst from his heart now, for what had he known of loss before? Now he knew what it truly meant to have Loki by his side, and being granted that second chance was a joy so sweet that it hurt and forced tears from his eyes.

The rain that fell on the Avengers as they limped and carried each other into the tower was cool and fresh, damping down the dust and extinguishing fires, and as the sun shone down the artificial canyons, rainbows glimmered off shattered glass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm considering writing a sequel, but my brain has decided to write 3 things at a time, and transcribe something I wrote a while ago, and also do NaNoWriMo with a TaserTricks novel...uhhhhh...what have I done?!


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